Originally Posted by
Kacee
Except that's not consistent with the rules Marriott has set up, which require you to call Marriott reservations in the first instance. This was done in order to implement a limitation on the number of award stays a member can gift per year (five, IIRC), the idea apparently being that Marriott is able to track this since these reservations now get special handling. Further, you seem to be suggesting that the property has some power to say yay or nay to a reservation type that Marriott specifically allows and has set up specific procedures that members are supposed to follow (which do not include calling the hotel to confirm afterwards).
Again, the issues OP experienced here are all on Marriott for establishing a poorly considered set of new rules, and then totally bungling the implementation.
For clarity, I am
not criticizing the OP. I am suggesting that
if someone wants the best chance of success as a customer of Marriott then they can choose to engage in certain "workarounds" for shortcomings in how Marriott operate. As the rules are written and as hotels operate in practice is very different. If you're someone who likes to find a solution then it's helpful to know what works for other people. My view is only that the OP
could call a hotel if they want more confidence that their stay isn't going to run into issues. We can rant and rave about Marriott's shortcomings endlessly (and I don't begrudge people who enjoy doing that (I just skip over those posts)) but we can also try to identify ways in which someone can get the best outcome with those shortcomings in mind (if we're the type of people who enjoy that method of dealing with problems).